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Federer delights in old-school Aussie duel

Darren Walton

Roger Federer savoured his old-school duel with Sam Groth after ending the power-server's gallant US Open campaign to leave teenage standard-bearer Nick Kyrgios as Australia's last man standing at Flushing Meadows.

A keen student of the game's history and traditions, Federer said he relished playing throwbacks like Groth, who backed up his supersonic serve with relentless net-rushing in a "once-in-a-lifetime" appearance under lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

But, just as his new training shirt boasts, Federer was simply "Betterer", the five-times champion having all the answers in a 6-4 6-4 6-4 second-round shutout on Friday night.

"You've got to appreciate those kind of match-ups because we don't have them very often anymore, unfortunately," Federer said.

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"What I like about these kind of match-ups is there's always going to be something unusual that's going to happen, unusual shot-making.

"You have to react rather than just always play percentage tennis. You just hope to get the other odd ball back, and then all of a sudden it drops short; you've got to run up to it.

"Whenever somebody is at the net, or you're at the net, there's always something of the unknown that's going to happen a little bit more.

"Whereas at the baseline, you're so far away from your opponent that you see it happening.

"You have time to react to it. That can become sometimes a bit boring, I must say, as well, like the big serving can be boring as well.

"I like the mix of playing these kind of opponents and then totally different in the next match.

After cracking the world's top 100 this month, Groth was facing a top-10 rival for the first time - and opponents don't come any tougher in New York than the masterful Swiss.

Federer owns the Open's greatest winning strike rate - a staggering 89 per cent - in 46 years of professional tennis and has lost only once in 25 night matches.

And dressed to kill in undertaker all-black, Federer was in a merciless mood as he broke Groth's much-hyped serve five times to tee up a third-round date on Sunday with Spaniard Marcel Granollers.

Federer was so majestic that even Groth's best rally ended in defeat when the second seed flicked a breathtaking half-volley backhand lob over his head after the Australian thought he had him pinned.

The owner of the world's fastest serve, Groth also fired down a 236.5kph bullet, the most explosive delivery of the tournament.

But he lost that point too as Federer carved out another straight-sets victory, just like his opener against Marinko Matosevic.

Despite the defeat, Groth said getting a taste of playing in the tennis's biggest stage left him wanting more.

"To play in a packed house on Friday night against the greatest of all time, yeah, it's an unbelievable experience," said the world No.104.

"The place is humongous."

With Bernard Tomic withdrawing from his scheduled second-round meeting with Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer earlier on Friday, Kyrgios is now the lone Australian left in the men's singles draw.

The 19-year-old takes on Spanish 16th seed Tommy Robredo on Saturday night (11am Sunday AEST) for a place in the last 16.

While Ferrer remains on track for a semi-final encounter with Federer, sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych is also lurking in the bottom half of the draw after scraping through a sapping five-setter with Slovakian Martin Klizan.

Berdych, who took out Federer in the 2012 quarter-finals, plays Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili next after progressing 6-3 4-6 6-2 3-6 6-3 on Friday.

Wimbledon semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov is also through to the last 32, the Bulgarian seventh seed routing Israeli Dudi Sela 6-1 6-2 6-2.